Passengers urge boycott of Ryanair after woman is ejected from flight
Ryanair is facing calls for a boycott in Spain after a YouTube video showing a passenger being forcibly ejected from an aircraft went viral.
The video, which has been viewed more than 100,000 times, shows the woman remonstrating with security guards before being escorted from the plane at Valencia airport.
Fellow passengers claim she was not allowed to travel because she had broken Ryanair’s strict hand-luggage rules that restrict passengers to only one item of hand-luggage. They said she was carrying a book and a scroll which wouldn’t fit into her case and she was removed from the plane even though others had pleaded to be allowed to put the items in their own bags.
However, Ryanair has insisted she was removed from pushing past gate staff without showing any form of ID, breaching airline security regulations.
The incident caused a storm of protests on Twitter in Spain, with passengers urging others not to travel on Ryanair. Spain’s consumer ombudsman is already investigating Ryanair after receiving more than 1,000 complaints about the airline this year.
Air safety authorities are also investigating the airline after a string of diversions and emergency landings in Spain earlier this year. Ryanair insists its planes are safe and that it complies with all EU safety procedures.
Ryanair restricts passengers to one piece of hand-luggage weighing a maximum of 10kgs, which is more generous than other low-cost airlines, but its charges for check-in baggage are among the highest in the industry.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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